Agnostic gnostic, walking conundrum & metaphysical oxymoron (with emphasis in the 'moron' part), the mysterious RPJ leaves a double life: By day he serves as Grand Master of the International Sacred Order of Lucha Libre, but at night he pursues his life-long study of everything considered mysterious and/or 'paranormal' --a term he personally detests...
When he's not exploring the web looking for his daily fix of Forteana, he can be found blogging, doodling, fooling around and offering his services as news administrator and writer at The Daily Grail. He also regularly participates in other websites and podcasts like Mysterious Universe, The Grimerica Show and Where Did the Road Go?
He impatiently awaits for the return of the mothership in Mexico City.
absurdbydesign.com

12 Responses

Just what is a “conspiracy theory”” It used to have a fairly specific meaning but then it became more slur than description. Now it seems to be applied as a phrase to belittle just about any and everything that isn’t the mainstream, status-quo perspective.

And again wit’ da corn-spir-a -sees.
My goal wasn’t so much to focus on the disparaging usage but to come to some consensus – or at least share some perspectives – on using the phrase in a meaningful way.

You do buy conspiracies[quote=purrlgurrl]I’m not buying any conspiracy theories.
[/quote]

What are these “conspiracy theories” – reusing a phrases doesn’t gave any more info on what you mean by it.

Let’s put it this way – Watergate was a conspiracy, the recent coup in Egypt was a conspiracy, the NSA was a conspiracy for 20 years – yes it was around for 2 decade before the government admitted its existence.

BTW . . . do you not see the irony in the “human stupidity” angle? As in – what makes you think your perspectives are part of such? 😉

Obamacare will bring “death panels” (medical triage is already a common practice and has been since almost the beginning of what we know as current health care . . . it’s also standard battlefield medicine)

The JFK assassination (the latest twist seems to be blaming Lyndon Johnson, but there’s nothing at all new about that idea . . . it is as old as the 1970s, but people who weren’t even born then think it’s an original thought on their part)

Conspiracies are. but this is a tangent.[quote=purrlgurrl]9/11 (everything about it)

The moon landing[/quote]

Hmm . I find it puzzling that someone who mentions “human stupidity” cannot formulate a clear, much less accurate, summation of what she means by conspiracy theory.

Here’s a tip – in the same way that the existence of stupid doesn’t preclude the existence of smart, the fact that many even most alleged conspiracies and things mislabeled as such does not preclude the fact that there have been and will continue to be such occurrences.

That said, back to the point – how do you define a meaningful use of the term conspiracy theory? You seem to use it – as many do – as a catch-all for whatever non-mainstream postulation that you disagree with.

Innate stupidityInteresting you should mention that, seeing how some investigators think the ‘conspiracy’ angle in JFK’s assassination, was only focused in hiding away the incompetence of intelligence agencies, who failed to act upon the info they’d already gathered on Oswald.

Stupidity is definitely a side of human actions. But also the drive to conceal our mistakes in order to look less stupid to others 😉

There are many things that we rely on in our day-to-day that were termed “stupidity” when first proposed. Like all terms it is often used whenever there is something one disagrees with. And ironically, it is often the case that the one using it doesn’t have the range of intellect and/or imagination required to comprehend/grasp what they are calling stupid.

womb-drawn black pudding or occultnik yucky cookiewould be great band names or album titles if nothing else.

This made me laugh:

“The tech,” he mutters (I think—?), “is powerful.”

“The tech?”

He looks at me, a little incredulously.

“The magick. The magick is very powerful. You might leave with a big smile on your face and you don’t know where it’s come from, or you might not get anything for a couple of days. But you’ll get something.”

“I was kind of hoping just to observe. Is it obligatory to participate?”

He gives me a very close look. It enters me like a stick gauging the depth of the water.